Human Factors In Health And Social Care

Human Factors studies all the factors that can affect people and their behaviour. In the workplace, human factors are the job, organisational, environmental, physiological, psychological factors and individual features that affect behaviour at work (World Health Organization, 2009). The Health and Safety Executive (HSE: UK industrial safety regulator) suggest that a simple way to understand human factors is view it in three aspects: the individual, the job and the organisation and in what they affect people’s health and safety related behaviour (as cited in World Health Organization, 2009). In a clinical setting, clinical performance through an understanding of the effects of teamwork, tasks, equipment, workspace, culture, organisation on human behaviour and abilities, and application of that knowledge in clinical settings …show more content…
Fryer (2013) describes human factors as the key to optimal practice management of process and system design as it builds on the limitations and capabilities in the workforce. Human Factors can improve both staff and patient safety and also reduce the risk of harm (Pezzolesi et al, 2013). In the nursing profession the National Health Service (as cited in Fryer, 2013) stress that the design of human factors is particularly vital as the ‘caring’ profession is especially vulnerable to high, unsupervised workloads indirectly and directly related with the nurse’s scope of practice and role. This essay highlight the importance of adopting human factors principles and approach, particularly in clinical handover to continuously improve patient care and the healthcare system (Pezzolesi et al 2013).

Healthcare Human Factors techniques are vital safety-critical environments.